The woman who took down Jim West has set her sights on the county prosecutor.

Just like the last time she tried to recall someone,
Shannon Sullivan began her attempt to recall Spokane County Prosecutor
Steve Tucker with a visit to the elections office.

After handing over a packet listing four allegations of
malfeasance against Tucker, Sullivan, the woman behind the successful
2006 recall of Spokane Mayor Jim West, turned to a battery of cameras
and reporters and explained herself.

“I’m a little older, I have a little more wrinkles, but I have to do something,” Sullivan says.

Her petition lays out her beef with Tucker, including the
accusation that he aided a cover-up of the 2006 death of Otto Zehm after
a confrontation with Spokane police, and that he made a vow not to
prosecute any public employees. (Tucker, meanwhile, was out of the
country on vacation last week and unavailable for an interview as of
press time.)

“No one is above the law,” Sullivan says.

But while several of Tucker’s associates and former
political opponents faulted his tendency to be aloof from the public,
there was doubt over whether Sullivan’s allegations would hold water.

According to state law, the petition has to be reviewed by
the state Attorney General and a Superior Court judge before it can be
put out to the public for signatures. David Stevens, an attorney with
the U.S. Department of Justice who lost to Tucker in the general
election last year, doubts it will make it past the judge.

“I don’t think as currently drafted that the petition is
going to go anywhere,” Stevens says. “I understand why people want him
gone. Just not liking what the guy’s doing… that’s not malfeasance.”

Chris Bugbee also ran against Tucker in 2010, but didn’t
make it past the primary. He, too, had his doubts about the petition’s
validity, specifically its allegation that Tucker vowed not to prosecute
public employees.

“There’s a real fallacy in that. I’m aware of at least
seven that he’s prosecuted in the last five years, three of whom have
been my clients,” Bugbee says, pointing to the prosecutions of Spokane
Police Officers Rob Boothe, Jay Olson and Jay Mehring, among others.

Tucker has been repeatedly criticized for being inaccessible to the public and opaque when it came to explaining his actions.

As evidence of Tucker’s malfeasance, Sullivan pointed to
an incident last month in which Tucker refused a judge’s request to
appear in court and explain a plea agreement that he had brokered. The
deal reduced seven felony charges to two misdemeanors against a man
accused of shooting at a house during a dispute. The judge in the case
refused the deal, in part because of Tucker’s absence.

“On the face of it, that case seemed to require some sort
of explanation,” Bugbee says. “The public needs to be educated, and it
was the prosecutor’s job to explain the criminal justice process. …
[That’s] never really happened on Steve’s term.”

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says he applauds
Tucker on his resolve to stand up for victim’s rights and fight domestic
violence. But asked if Tucker has been successful in communicating with
the public, Knezovich says, “He hasn’t.”

“If there are concerns, you have to step out and talk to
the people who elected you,” Knezovich says. “I just don’t see Steve
very active out addressing some of the issues. I think when you don’t do
that, you end up with people thinking you’re disengaged.”

But maybe that’s what voters want, says Bugbee.

“I didn’t win on that platform” of transparency, Bugbee
says. “So there’s apparently plenty of people in the public who don’t
think it’s necessary.”

Stevens, who worked in Tucker’s office before being fired
when he decided to run against Tucker in 2010, maintained that his
former boss shouldn’t be in office any longer. But he held no illusions
about the petition’s success.

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